Is Your Networking Helping or Hurting Your Career?

Everyone understands that networking is a valuable tool when it comes to advancing your career. However, there is a right and a wrong way to go about it. Don’t let bad networking hurt your chance at another rung on the corporate ladder or the ability to meet people who could help you along the way.  Here are five tips you can use to get the most out of your networking.

  1. Expand Your Circles. Make sure that you aren’t spending all your time with the same groups of people.  If you spend too much time with people who do exactly what you do, they are less likely to be able to help you move to the next level. In fact, if you are all searching for jobs, you become competition and not a network.  It is better to seek diversity. Talk to people in multiple industries and from multiple stages in their careers to cast a broader net.
  2. Don’t use networking as a tool of desperation.  A big mistake that people will make is to not network at all until they are in need of a new job. The people you meet are less likely to help you if you seem desperate. They question your connection and feel that you might be disingenuous.  You should always be expanding your networks even when you’re not in the market.  Reach out to professional organizations and stay active with them. Determine what you can offer them as well.
  3. Build quality relationships. When you’re using sites like LinkedIn, it is common to try to hoard as many connections as possible. You never know when someone might be useful in the future. This is exactly the opposite of what you should be doing. Make sure that you are cultivating personal relationships with people.  If you don’t think you have anything to offer them, get creative. Their job is not the only thing that defines who they are. If you share a similar interest or hobby, reach out to them about that.
  4. Make sure you know what you want. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, your contacts won’t know either. Don’t just reach out blindly to as many people as possible. Create a plan and decide what your next best step is and reach out to those people that might be able to help or make more connections for you.
  5. Don’t make the wrong connections. You need to decide which people are really matches for your career goals. Making connections to people who don’t know anyone in your industry or who don’t return your phone calls won’t help you and you might as well remove them from your directory.

Looking to maximize your networking? Contact CornerStone Staffing to tap into their career networks today.

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